1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of communicating and converting data of different formats between databases having different designs.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typically, a medical service provider has database software installed on a general purpose computer for maintaining for each patient serviced by the medical service provider one or more electronic records. Each of these records includes data regarding a patient, such as notes regarding the patient's condition, services rendered on a particular date by the medical service provider for the patient, fees associated with one or more of the rendered services, and the like. This data is often maintained for each patient of the medical service provider as an electronic patient record in the database which has been designed specifically by or for the medical service provider.
Insurers also have database software installed on a computer for creating and maintaining for each insured patient one or more electronic patient records that include some or all of the same information as the electronic patient record maintained by the patient's medical service provider. Unfortunately, however, electronic patient records of a medical service provider often have a different design than the electronic patient records of a particular patient's insurer. To this end, it is common practice for many medical service providers to treat numerous patient, each of whom may be insured by a different insurer having databases of different design.
In order to account for the differences in design of the database of a medical service provider and the design of the database of an insurer for a patient, an insurer often provides the medical service provider with data entry software which enables the medical service provider to electronically enter data regarding a patient into an interface screen and thereafter forward this entered data to the insurer for processing. More specifically, this data entry software is configured to receive the data into predetermined fields, including one or more patient identification fields, of a record for the particular patient. Once data is entered into these predetermined fields, the software program formats the entered data into a form that the database software of the patient's insurer is expecting and electronically transfers the formatted data to the database software of the patient's insurer for processing.
A problem with such data entry software is that the medical service provider, in addition to entering data regarding a patient into their own database, needs to enter some or all of the same patient data into the data fields of the data entry software so that this data can be processed by the particular patient's insurer. As can be seen, when a medical service provider is sending data regarding patients to a plurality of different insurers, a plurality of different data entry software must be maintained by the medical service provider and utilized to effect entry and transfer of patent data to each insurer.
A problem with this arrangement is the need for the medical service provider to acquire the appropriate data entry software for the insurer of a particular patient and the need for the medical service provider to redundantly enter data into the medical service provider's database and the data entry software. Another problem is that a medical service provider may be required to become familiar with more than one data entry software. Furthermore, from the standpoint of each insurer, there are logistical problems maintaining the integrity of the release and version of data entry software utilized by numerous medical service providers.
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the above problems and others by providing a method of communicating data across a distributed computer network between computer systems having different record formats. Is an object of the present invention to provide a method where IP addresses of a transmitter and a receiver accompany a data packet to its ultimate destination while the data packet is routed through one or more designated intermediate receivers. Still other objects will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading and understanding the following detailed description It is a second object of the present invention